Mammoth Ski Slope Reopens

An upper slope that gave way to an avalanche a day earlier was reopened to skiers Friday as Mammoth Mountain prepared for its first weekend of a late-starting season.

“We’ve got the upper mountain running. They did some more control work on it this morning,” spokeswoman Mary Shoshone said Friday, adding that there had been no more slides.

Rescue workers had used dogs and metal probes to search for any skiers trapped by an avalanche Thursday on the 11,000-foot-high upper run known as Dropout 3, but none were found, she said.

Skier Robert Burnett, 18, of San Diego was knocked down by the runaway mass of snow but was not hurt, said Shoshone, spokeswoman for the Mammoth-June Ski Resort.